“Downtown” St. Matthews has come a long way, from the generation when it was best known for dark bars populated by portly gentlemen drinking cold beer, to the modern era that finds it chockablock with hipster bars populated by trendy young folks wearing skinny jeans and drinking specialty cocktails. I won’t even open the door to a discussion about whether this trend is beneficial or regrettable, although I’ll suggest that this opinion lies largely in the eye of the beholder.
Continue reading “It takes real bocconcini”: Mellow Mushroom takes on the locals
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Where will we go for brunch now that Lynn’s is closed?
At least a few million megabytes of social media and a wastebasket full of old-media newsprint have surely been spilled over the recent startling and sudden demise of Lynn’s Paradise Cafe.
I don’t see much point in adding more to that flood, other than to note that we may yet be hearing more about the weird tipping and servers-vs.-management dispute that broke into public view a few days before proprietor Lynn Winter yanked the keys out of the restaurant’s ignition and shut ’er down.
But let’s not get into the who, what, when, where and why of all that right now. A larger question looms: “Where in the heck can we go for Sunday brunch now that Lynn’s is gone?”
Continue reading Where will we go for brunch now that Lynn’s is closed?
Simply Thai’s Middletown shop trails the original
The sun shimmers like a brass gong in the pale, washed-out desert sky. There’s not so much as a breath of cooling breeze. I can see a big cactus, but it’s not much good for shade. Thirsty. So thirsty. The sun beats down, baking, burning.
And then my eyes pop open, doing the familiar where-am-I blink, and hey! I’m home! In bed! And I have never been so thirsty. About four big glasses of cold water put that right, and soon I’m sinking back into a calmer sleep, thinking as I drift off, “I’ll bet it was the pad Thai.”
Continue reading Simply Thai’s Middletown shop trails the original
Lynn’s has closed
Lynn’s Paradise Cafe has abruptly closed, in the immediate aftermath of a media uproar about server tip pooling and management policies. Lynn Winter, proprietor of the 21-year Louisville tradition, writes, “We are touched to hear from so many of our loyal customers this morning. We’ll post an additional statement this afternoon. Thank you again for your continued support!” Join the conversation on the LouisvilleHotBytes forum or my Facebook page.
SuperChefs Builds Memorable Breakfast
(SuperChefs is now at 307 Wallace Avenue in St. Matthews, 896-8008; facebook.com/SuperChefsBreakfast on Facebook.)
Every now and then you’ll encounter an idea so simple, yet so brilliant, that you’ll suck in your breath and think, “Wow! I wish I had thought of that!” And when such a bright idea concerns breakfast, it’s hard to see how things could get any better than that.
So say hello to SuperChefs Breakfast, and a big tip of the old fedora to innovators Darnell Ferguson and Ryan Bryson, who came up with a creative way to jump from an award-winning culinary-school career to running their own restaurant, without all the capital expenses and costs and deal-making that such an entrepreneurial effort usually requires.
Continue reading SuperChefs Builds Memorable Breakfast
Bistro 1860: a paradise for foodies, just not a wine geek bar
What the heck is a wine geek? A wine geek loves wine, can carry on an extended conversation about the stuff, knows a little about how it’s made, and plans trips around winery visits. He rejects labels like “snob” or even “connoisseur,” though, preferring to be recognized for a hobbyist’s passion. She loves wine, but understands that, after all, it’s really just grape juice — delicious, adult grape juice that goes great with food but is best taken in moderate doses. Continue reading Bistro 1860: a paradise for foodies, just not a wine geek bar
Relish generates a buzz on the riverfront
I rolled north along Frankfort Avenue, on through Butchertown and down the hill toward the river, getting ready to hang a left on … hey! What fresh hell is this? I know I haven’t been around here for a while, but nothing looks right.
“Siri? Siri! Where am I?”
My iPhone’s robotic voice responded: “You are on River Road.”
“I don’t think so. This doesn’t look like River Road to me! It’s got four lanes, and it’s in the wrong place. So many new things! Strip malls! The front of an old house! And where is the Stop Lite?”
“I found 12 places matching ‘The Stop’ fairly close to you.”
“Never mind! Forget it! Just take me to Relish restaurant!”
“Sorry, Robin, I can’t do that. You’re not listening to the music app.”
“Aaagggh!”
“They didn’t want it,” the Stop Lite clerk said, cocking one eye toward the ceiling in the direction, I assume, of building management. This is a real loss. If the old Stop Lite’s flashing red, yellow and green beacon was still around, I wouldn’t have had to summon Siri in the first place. Perhaps we should start a Facebook movement to Restore The Historic Stop Lite?
Relish, however, needs no beacon. Word of mouth alone surrounded this new spot with a trendy buzz since it opened right after Thanksgiving. It’s hard to imagine how it could have done otherwise. It represents the re-entry into the Louisville dining scene of Susan Seiller, who owned and put her stamp on the popular Jack Fry’s restaurant from 1987 until 2008.
Seiller, who also ran the short-lived but much-loved Paloma on Brownsboro Road in the early ’90s before turning it over to Azalea, has brought the style that informed Fry’s and Paloma to infuse what could have been a bland shopping center space for Relish with cool, techno-industrial decor. Walls are pure white, as are the simple but stylish plastic chairs; tabletops are streaky black. No shortcuts were taken with glasses or silverware, and even the heavy paper napkins feel like cloth.
And that location amid River Road’s new look may prove foresighted, as it’s neatly situated to serve both business diners on lunch break or commuters who choose the River Road option on their way home from work. (Lunch service now ends at 4 p.m.; there’s no table service for dinner, but a prepared-foods deli loaded with delicacies from Chef Jack Beeson stays open until 7 p.m. Relish is also open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and may eventually add dinner hours, our server said, but don’t expect it soon.)
We dropped in before noon on a weekday, a lucky choice, as the place was slammed by midday. Service moved briskly, though, and we were in and out within an hour.
Beeson’s concise menu is affordable (nothing over $10) and focused on appetizing yet healthy fare from ingredients, a table card assures us, “sourced … from purveyors with sustainable practices. Some local. Some not.” I wish the menu named the sources. Was that Capriole goat cheese on the onion tart? I don’t know. The beef in the churrasco steak seemed to have the texture and flavor of grass-fed, but where was it from? This is not critical information, but 21st century foodies like to know these things.
We loaded up on lunch and took more deli dishes home, and I couldn’t find a nit to pick. The churrasco steak ($9) was perfect medium-rare as ordered, thin medallions over a Salvadorean-style arepa (corn cake) filled with grilled jalapeños and finished with spicy sautéed mushrooms and bright-green Argentinean chimichurri.
The onion and goat cheese tart ($7) was simple and flavorful, fine short pastry topped with sliced onions sautéed dark brown and sweet, garnished with mild goat cheese crumbles and plated with a pile of fresh, bitter arugula tossed in a gentle lemon vinaigrette.
Lentil chili ($3 for a cup, $6 for a bowl) was thick, spicy and rib-sticking. White runner bean soup ($3 and $6) was filled with beans the size of limas, bits of tomato and slivers of chard in a consoling beef broth. A side of roasted beet salad ($3) with thin shavings of ricotta salata cheese might tempt the most ardent beet-hater.
A hefty ration of coconut pound cake with caramelized pineapple and a scoop of Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream ($7) was really too much for one, or even two, but we finished it all the same.
Lunch for two exceeded the “budget” level but was worth it, with plenty of food but no alcohol still tallying $36.04, plus a $7.50 tip.
Relish
1346 River Road
587-7007
relishlouisville.com
Rating: 92
Happy New Year, foodies!
Nearly two years ago in this column I made a “Louisville food industry wish” for the new year, calling for relaxed rules and clarity in food-truck regulations for Metro Louisville. And while we’re not 100 percent where we need to be, I commend Mayor Greg Fischer and his crew for enabling our local food-truck explosion. Well done. We now have a Louisville Food Truck Association, headed up by the ever-entrepreneurial Leah Stewart of Louisville Dessert Truck and Louisville Candy Buffet.
Continue reading Happy New Year, foodies!
Cafe Lou Lou Thrives “Where Sears Used To Be”
Here’s something worth knowing about Cafe Lou Lou in St. Matthews: Among all the city’s restaurants, edging out even such close contenders as Equus & Jack’s, Del Frisco’s, Charim Korean and Havana Rumba, it arguably stands closest of all to that iconic Louisville location: “Where the old Sears store used to be.” Continue reading Cafe Lou Lou Thrives “Where Sears Used To Be”
Banh Mi Hero gets the Vietnamese sandwich right
It’s no longer hip to claim colonialism was cool. Take it from one who spends entirely too much time in the groves of academe: In this post-colonial era, the dead white men who once strode the earth to plant a flag in distant lands in the name of president or queen are distinctly out of fashion. It isn’t even politically correct to brag about those exploits anymore.
But I’ll step up and proudly claim one great boon of civilization that may be even better as a result of having been taken around the world to meet and mingle and gain new ideas from exposure to other cultures.
Of course I’m talking about the sandwich. Continue reading Banh Mi Hero gets the Vietnamese sandwich right